Okay, to be honest, I got so frustrated with working on her that I walked away and never came back. Over the summer, she’ll be finished since I’ve got everything except… oh… her bloody uniform.

Enough about Ren. My latest project came to be because of Hikaru’s Photoshoot.

I mentioned in passing to Laura perhaps doing Kuroshitsuji for the shoot because we bought the pins last year at Naka-kon and haven’t used them. At that point, it was just an idea, but the next thing I get is a text from Laura saying she bought the materials to make Sebastian’s vest.

I guess that sealed the deal.

Because she made me feel the tiniest bit guilty about making a cosplay especially for Hikaru’s shoot, I went through my project files and pulled out a costume of Ciel’s I planned for the future.

What better time to work on it than now?

I’ve always loved Lizzy in the Campania/Bizzare Dolls arc. My brother and I initially planned to wear this sometime in the future with me as Lizzy. I figured I’d save myself some time and make Ciel’s outfit from this arc for the shoot.

Due to my pathetic financial state, I’ve been hoarding coupons like nobody else’s business. February is a good time for coupons for some reason and I got that 10% student discount card as well.

At first, I only bought materials for the vest, thinking that if I had a large pile of fabric, it would overwhelm me and I’d never get anything accomplished. Which is pretty much true. When I had just the stuff, I felt like I was almost done. I think I need to hide away the bag of stuff I bought for the shirt and pants in some other part of my closet so that I trick myself into thinking I’m almost done.

Last Thursday, when I bought the stuff for the vest, I patterned out everything for the lining and outer shell. The vest itself is semi-unsual because it looks like a halter to me. Also, from doing Paper Boy Ciel, I know that the back of the vest is not black suiting or cotton, but lining.

This is the reason why I bought really soft and really nice lining. Ciel is a rich boy who can afford to drop money on top quality fabrics. I, on the other hand, am a poor college student who used so many coupons in order to afford the same thing.

I only had time to sew together the lining, but the outside was pinned together for the next time.

So on Monday, with the winter storm warning, I went to Jo-ann’s after my orthodontist appointment to pick up stuff for Ciel’s shirt. I debated on getting fabric for his pants as wall because a) I couldn’t trust my memory as to what kind of suiting I bought for his vest and b) I didn’t know if I wanted to spend the money on it but I gave in and purchased it.

When I got home, I finished sewing the outer shell of the vest and attached the lining to it at the top seam. I folded over the fabric at the front to mark the edge of vest where the buttons would go.

Yesterday, I realized that I forgot to insert the ribbon tie at the small of the waist so I marked where I needed to undo the stitches in the darts, undid them, inserted the end of the strap inside, and sewed it back up.

From there, I worked exclusively on the collar. It took a couple sketches to get the proportions right, and I still don’t think I’ve got it exactly since every picture I look at is different (OH WHY???) but I gave up towards the end and called it good. I sewed the collar together, attached it to the vest, and started work on the strap that holds it up around my neck.

For something so simple, it was very difficult. The vest itself disappears to a thin point and I think I cut my vest a little too thin because attaching that neck was the biggest pain in the ass and took two attempts over the course of two and a half hours. I finally got it attached but it looks a little derpy and the gray vest doesn’t quite disappear like it’s supposed to but I got so fed up with it that I called it good. The only way to fix it at this point (aside from redoing the whole mess) is to pull the seam back inside the vest to hide the gray and derpyness abound.

So hear I am, one seam plus four buttons away from finishing that dratted thing but I can’t work on it today because I found out last night that I have a financial meeting tonight. Yay.